News and Views on Social Marketing and Social Change

Does Marketing Make Us Fat?

"Does food marketing need to make us fat? A review and solutions" by Pierre Chanson and Brain Wansink in this month's Nutrition Reviews is a long needed reality check for public health professionals and social marketers who are working on obesity prevention and management.

The authors examine the question: "How [can] food marketers could continue to grow their profits without growing their customer’s body mass index (BMI)?" They provide an integrative review of marketing, consumer research, social science disciplines that rarely appear in health and medicine publications on the topics of food, obesity and health (269 references!). It is a welcomed piece to start removing the blinders, or changing the frame, that too many people bring to the subject.

They state the case clearly:"Food marketers influence the volume of food consumption through four basic mechanisms that vary in their conspicuousness. 1) The short- and long-term price of food, as well as the type of pricing (e.g., a straight price cut or quantity discount), can influence how much people purchase and eventually consume.Pricing efforts are generally conspicuous and lead to deliberate decisions. 2) Marketing communications, including advertising, promotion, branding, nutrition, and health claims, can influence a consumer’s expectations of the sensory and nonsensory benefits of the food.Marketing communications comprise the most recognized form of influence and the one most closely scrutinized by marketing and nonmarketing researchers. The influence of marketing communication can sometimes be as conspicuous as price changes, but consumers are not always aware of some of the newest forms of marketing communication (e.g., “advergaming,” package design, or social media activities) and, even when they are aware of the persuasive intent behind these tools, they may not realize that their consumption decisions are being influenced. 3) The product itself, including its quality (composition, sensory properties, calorie density, and variety) and quantity (packaging and serving sizes) also influence in a variety of ways how much of the product consumers eat. This area has been frequently researched as marketing communication. 4) The eating environment, including the availability, salience, and convenience of food, can be altered by marketers. Compared to the breadth of the domain, this is the least frequently studied area, yet it is the one most likely to be driven by automatic, visceral effects outside the awareness and volitional control of consumers." (p.572).

This review should be required reading for anyone who is working on obesity prevention and thinking about public health interventions. Their insights into how food marketers can improve their financial and social bottom-lines may also lead to some interesting collaborative opportunities. For example,

Provide quantity discounts through bulk packaging of fruits and vegetables like at membership warehouse clubs such as Sam’s Club and Costco.

Co-brand healthy items with popular brands (that may not necessarily be known for being healthy).

Co-brand and add licensed characters onto produce packaging.

Advertise produce websites on fruit stickers.

Develop foods that contain textures, ingredients, and nutrients that accelerate satiation (so that people stop eating faster) but extend satiety.

Use multi-sensory displays to help people imagine what it will feel like to eat aromatic, soft, complex, visually appealing fruits. For example, pipe in the smell of fruit to a supermarket produce section.

Add a smaller size on the menu. Even if nobody chooses it, it will make other sizes look bigger and will lead people to choosing smaller sizes.

Restaurants should display fruits and vegetables or other healthy options near the entrance and slice and package them in an appealing way.

"For-profit food marketers are not focused on making people fat but on making money…[T]he mission assigned to most food marketers is to understand what different consumer segments desire and to profitably offer it to them. In general, what many people want in the short term is tasty, inexpensive, varied, convenient, and healthy foods – roughly in that order of benefit importance. The marketer’s mandate is to help identify and create foods that deliver these benefits better; to communicate these benefits; to profitably package, price, and distribute these foods; and to protect these innovations by branding the food so that it acquires unique and positive associations in the mind of consumers." (p. 587).